Identification system.



PATENTED JUNE 13, 1905 G. F. BUSH.

IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 10. 1904.

w w m Q G o m oouooaooemmo o o w o o o UNITED STATES Patented June 13, 1905 PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES FRANKLIN BUSH, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-THIRD TO H. (J. EVERT '& COMPANY, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYL- VANIA, -A OOPARTNERSHIP.

IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 792,312, dated June 13, 1905.

Application filed February 10, 1904. Serial No. 192,982.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES FRANKLIN BUSH, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Pittsbu rg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Identification Systems, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention has relation to postagestamps, and relates in particular to means for identifying a sheet of postage-stamps or for identifying an individual stamp, so as to be able to determine from what class of post- 1 5 office and from which particular post-office of that class the stamp has been received.

Owing to the fact that postage-stamps are frequently purloined in large quantities from post-oflices and are sold in sheets or separately, it is almost impossible to detect and apprehend the thieves or the receivers of the stolen stamps or to determine from what post-ofiice they were stolen, as the stamps of each denomination issued to all the post-offices are identical.

Broadly stated, my invention consists in so forming and arranging the perforations which intervene between the several stamps on the sheet as to render it not only possible but easy to identify the class of post-office from which the sheet of stamps has been issued or fraudulently removed and also to render it easy to identify by number the particular post-office of that class from which the stamps have been 3 5 issued or taken.

In carrying my invention into effect I perforate the sheets of stamps as is usual in two directions; but instead of the perforations being a continuous series of small round holes,

4 as at present, I perforate the sheet in such a manner that the perforations on the edges of each individual stamp indicate the particular class of post-office to which the stamps are issued by the Government and from which they are sold and also the individual number of that oflice.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a plan view, on an enlarged scale, of part of a sheet of postage-stamps perforated according to my invention, the perforations being so formed and arranged as to designate the class of post-oflice and the particular number of the post-office to which the stamps have been issued. Figs. 2, 3, and 4c are similar views, the perforations designating different classes of post-oflices and the different numbers of the individual post-offices to which the stamps have been issued. Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail view of a portion of a stamp-sheet with a row of perforations indicating numerals above one hundred.

In practice I prefer to so form and arrange the perforations designating the particular number of the post-oflice that they will correspond to the Morse telegraph code; but instead of using dots and dashes, as in the Morse code, I use a round perforation to represent a dot, two perforations to represent a dash, and five perforations to represent a longer dash, the spaces between the respective groups of perforations representing the dots and dashes beingindicated by perforations of some other form-such, for instance, as the rectangular perforations shown-and the space between each group of dots, dashes, and intervening spaces representing a number being indicated by a perforation of still another form, that shown in the drawings being a diamond. To designate the class of post-office to which the stamps are issued, I employ a perforation or a number of perforations corresponding to the enumeration of the class of the post-office and intervening perforations of a different form from those designating the class as aforesaid, the numerals indicating 8 classification being designated in the drawings by round holes and the spaces between numerals by rectangular holes.

Taking, first, for illustration the partial sheet shown in Fig. 1, it will be observed that the said sheets, each stamp being letters A, are provided with a horizontal line of perforations B, composed of the round holes O O, alternating with the rectangular holes D, the single round hole indicating that the stamp- 5 sheet has been issued to a first-class postoflice, The vertical line of perforations E, reading from the bottom upwardly, is composed of the round perforation F, representing a dot, a rectangular perforation Gr, representing a space, and two dots H, representing a dash, the rectangular perforations Gr, representing a space, the two round perforations H H, representing a dash, the rectangular perforation G, representing a space, the round perforation F, representing a dot, the rectangular perforation Gr, representing a space, the group of five round perforations 1, representing a cipher, and the diamondshaped perforation K, representing a space between numerals, the entire row of perforations from the bottom to the top of the stamp therefore indicating the numeral 10, according to the Morse code.

With the above explanation it will be readily understood that by examining a sheet of stamps or by closely examining the top and side edge of any stamp which has formed a portion of this sheet the class of post-office and the individual number of the same can be immediately determined, since the sepa rating of the sheet along the rows of perforations divides such rows centrally and one-half of each perforation remains as a means of identification in the edge of each stamp.

In Fig. 2 of the drawings the round perforations on the horizontal line indicate that this sheet of stamps has been issued to a second-class post-oflice, while the vertical perforations read according to the Morse alphabet, as indicated above in referring to Fig. 1, show that the individual number of the post-office to which this sheet has been issued is 50, and the horizontal perforations on the partial sheet shown in Fig. 3 indicate that the sheet has been issued to a third-class post-office, and the vertical row of perforations indicate that the individual number of post-office is 10, while in Fig. 4: the row of horizontal perforations indicate that the sheet has been issued to a fourth-class post-office, and the vertical row of perforations indicate that the individual number of this post-ofiice is 50.

Fig. 5 shows a part of a sheet of stamps in which the perforations indicate the numerals 2 0 4:, and as the respective groups of round perforations indicate dots and dashes according to the Morse code it will be seen that the row of perforations shownin Fig. 5, being read consecutively from left to right, represent the numeral 204.

From the foregoing it will be obvious that as I propose to represent numerals by prop erly-spaced groups of characteristic perforations the particular form of the perforations representing the dots, dashes, and spaces and of the perforations which represent the spaces between numerals may be varied at will without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Having fully described my invention, what I-claim is- 1. A postage-stamp having indentations on its edge, of a plurality of fdrms, the indentations of one form being grouped so as to rep resent a character or numeral and the indentations of another form intervening between the groups ofindentations of the first form so as to indicate spaces between said character or numeral.

2. A sheet of postage-stamps having rows of perforations between the stamps, said perforations being of aplurality of for-ms and the perforations of one form being grouped and the perforations of the other form intervening between said groups of perforations.

3. A sheet of postage-stamps having rows of perforations composed of perforations of a plurality of forms, the perforations of one kind being arranged in groups, of different numbers of perforations, and perforations of another kind intervening between said groups.

4:. A stamp-sheet having rows of perforations composed of perforations of a plurality of forms, the perforations of one form being grouped, and the perforations of another form intervening between said groups of perforations, and said stamp-sheet being provided with intersecting rows of perforations of like character to that of the first-named rows of perforations.

5. A stamp-sheet having rows of perforations, the perforations being of a plurality of forms and the perforations of one form being arranged in groups of varying numbers, with intervening perforations of another form and said sheet being formed with intersecting rows of perforations of like character, the number of perforations in the groups of the intersecting row of perforations differing from the number of perforations in the groups of the first-named row of perforations.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES FRANKLIN BUSH.

Witnesses:

H. C. Evnrrr, F, E. POTTER. 

